In traditional style, the hacker greeted a number of people by their online handles, probably members of the same hacking crew.

IBM restored the original pages within a few hours, though copies of the compromised pages were quickly reposted elsewhere.

No data was lost, nor were any user passwords exposed during the breach, said an IBM spokesman. The site was undergoing routine maintenance during the time of the breach.

"The defaced pages were draped in black and titled 'Defaced by Hmei7,'" Jackson writes. "They contained the scrolling message: 'You have been Hacked !!!, not because of your stupidity That's because we love you, and we want to warn you That your web still has large of vulnerability.'"